Titanique: Jim Parsons, Frankie Grande, and Deborah Cox – Photo: Evan Zimmerman/Murphy Made
Sometimes, drunken nights can lead to sobering profits. That’s certainly true for Marla Mindelle and Constantine Rousouli, who came up with the idea for a parody of the 1997 global box-office hit Titanic one night after a few martinis.
It took builders nearly three years to complete construction on the real vessel. It didn’t end well. It took Mindelle and Rousouli three times as long to bring their once modest show Titanique to Broadway. But, along with co-creator and director Tye Blue, they have succeeded — and quite marvelously.
An iceberg may have thwarted plans of the original voyage but even a global pandemic couldn’t stop the momentum behind this hull of hilarity, which has docked at the St. James Theatre for a “strictly limited run.” Time will tell how strict it really is and whether producers will find a way to keep it open past mid-July. Judging from past audience approval and strong critical reception, the chances are good.
The Broadway version features a bigger boat (and a bigger budget) than the show’s previous iterations. The original cast has also been bolstered with some new additions, including Jim Parsons, Frankie Grande, and nineties dance diva Deborah Cox. Set designers Gabriel Hainer Evansohn and Grace Laubacher have filled the St. James with cool steel designs that evoke a ship’s bow against Paige Seber’s pastel LED lighting designs.
The plot mostly adheres to the James Cameron film with some poetic license and a ton of references that make this silly theatrical treatment gayer than an Atlantis cruise. In this version, however, Celine Dion (Mindelle) opens the story by crashing a Titanic museum tour and convincing tourists that she was on the infamous sunken ship. The conceit seamlessly flows into the remaining 90 minutes, providing consistent waves of laughter and joy.
Mindelle has been living on stage playing the internationally known singer for so long that it’s sometimes hard to believe she’s not the real deal. The mannerisms, vocal inflections, and slight physical resemblance are uncanny, even when they are hugely exaggerated.
Rousouli reprises his role as Jack, the bohemian vying for the affection of Rose DeWitt Bukater (Melissa Barrera), an aristocrat traveling with her overbearing, pretentious mother, Ruth Bukater (Parsons). Their last name is ideal for bawdy humor, something that is not in short supply on this cruise. Joining them is Cal Hockley (John Riddle), Rose’s wealthy, but closeted, fiancé who urges the ship’s captain to go faster since, “I have a hair appointment in Soho on Tuesday and they book way in advance.”
Grande bursts with queer energy in the dual roles of Victor Garber and Luigi, Jack’s best friend who boards the ship with him after the pair score tickets in a poker match.
Cox brings sass and sexiness to the role of Molly Brown and while the part isn’t crafted with as much comedy as the others, she still manages to elicit a few laughs. Cox shows off her pop diva chops with a standing ovation-worthy rendition of “All By Myself.” It’s one of the show’s best moments.
Layton Williams reprises his Olivier Award-winning roles of The Seaman, Iceberg, and tour guide, and turns out a show-stopping cover of “River Deep, Mountain High.” Parsons, meanwhile, delivers high camp in costume designer Alejo Vietti’s dove-flecked hat and purple dress. As the snooty matriarch, his Ruth lets loose and lambasts several cardboard cut-out guests on the ship, including Patti LuPone, Nicole Scherzinger, and Carol Channing.
The cast appears to be having the time of their lives and the audience devours it. While it helps to have a queer sensibility, anyone with a fondness for Celine Dion or source material will be just as entertained. Make no mistake, though — even with Cats: The Jellicle Ball and The Rocky Horror Show currently on the Great White Way, Titanique may be the queerest event of the year.
Titanique (★★★★☆) runs through July 12 at the St. James Theatre, 246 W. 44th St. in New York City. Tickets are $69.44 to $279.44. Visit titaniquebroadway.com.
There is the theatrical revival that merely dusts off previously produced material, has polish and shine thrust upon it, tweaks made to the script, and is remounted to new glory. There are others that take existing material and transform it into something transcendent -- much like the old-time gospel sort with hands raised, fans waved, and God praised.
Cats: The Jellicle Ball undeniably falls into the latter category. It is fitting to liken it to a spiritual awakening since directors Zhailon Livingston and Bill Rauch have taken Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, based on T.S. Eliot’s poetry collection Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats and have swapped an old junkyard for a new runway where community is celebrated and ferocity reigns supreme.
"As an actor, you're never playing a villain, you're never playing evil," says Stephen Mark Lukas. "You have to look at what motivates the character's behavior -- and that's been really fun to explore with this."
Lukas is part of the touring company of Disney's Beauty and the Beast: The Musical, starring as the hypermasculine, vainglorious Gaston -- a man who feels entitled to Belle, fails to win her affections, and turns menacing when she falls for the Beast.
"Gaston is a product of the time period," says Lukas. "He's an absurdly confident man who runs the show in the village. Belle is the first person who stands up to him and doesn't give him what he wants -- the first real obstacle he's faced. Watching how that triggers him, and how it pushes him to snap by the end, is something we see playing out in the world today. It's a trajectory people can identify with."
Intrepid pilots spotting the slimmest strip of runway in a storm, the team behind Signature Theatre's Safety Not Guaranteed aim for a dicey sweet spot between rock musical and concert experience, and land squarely on the money.
Adapting the 2012 sci-fi comedy film directed by Colin Trevorrow, the show's book writer Nick Blaemire and composer Ryan Miller have shaped Derek Connolly's multiple-award-winning script into a narrative that feels natural onstage.
Having not yet seen the film, but just from watching the trailer, it's clear Blaemire smartly kept some of the film's sharpest lines and phrases, as delivered onscreen by the likes of Aubrey Plaza, Jake Johnson, and Mark Duplass. And he and Miller (a founding member and lead singer of the band Guster) also didn't divert too far from the movie's plum premise.
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